Hello KFB supporters!
Farmer J here wanting to share with you what’s going on with the farm.
August brings summer heat and shorter days.
This tells the plants it’s time to wrap up and make seeds as they finish out their life cycles. Crops like tomatoes and peppers that have been cared for since late winter have finally started to produce bountiful harvests. Daily volunteers search through the patches seeking ripened fruit. These are then distributed immediately to our community partners and into Sack Suppers, ensuring maximum nutrition and flavor.
Farm to Table dinners are magic on the farm.
In the late summer, when the farm is filled with produce, conditions are perfect for food-related events! Weekly Farm to Table dinners create an opportunity for you to come and enjoy an evening on the farm. Each event features a 5-course meal prepared by local celebrity chefs, who showcase their talents with dishes designed with seasonality at the forefront. Some tickets are still available, but hurry, as they are almost gone!
U-Pick days connect families with fresh food.
Hefty harvests also create the opportunity for another special event we host on the farms: U-Pick days. On these mornings, we invite one or more community partners to sign up families interested in harvesting food themselves. It’s a great way to connect people with their food. The Learn team hosts cooking demos with simple recipes that include farm-fresh items prepared and served by the guests themselves.
At the most recent U-Pick, families harvested 885 pounds of fresh produce. Popular items for the day were tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and eggplant. Many shared that they would be preserving their produce to capture the harvest for the months following the growing season.
Volunteers are needed to harvest the month’s bounty.
August is also known as a vacation month. This, coupled with back-to-school preparations, means that we tend to see daily farm volunteer numbers dip. We ask that you spread the word to help us find the support we will need over the next 4-6 weeks as we wrap up this growing season. Daily shifts are available in both locations, with harvest being the bulk of the work.
Here at KFB, we all are honored by our community that continues to support us, from digging in the dirt to donating a dollar. Your gifts of time and treasure are so important to our everyday operations, and we are thankful. We promise to keep showing up every day seeking a more equitable future for all in West Michigan.
Enjoy the harvest!
The Grow Team
Jason, Sara and Zack
